It was that time of the year again, when Baltimore is host to the largest Anime/Manga convention on the East Coasts. People of all ages came from all over the country to participate in the many things the convention had to offer from Gaming to cosplaying (dressing up like characters) to collecting of domestic and imported goods related to the culture. This was my 4th visit to the con and I had the privilege of going all three days having pre-ordered my pass and picking it up on Thursday surprised me, there were no long lines when I arrived. Otakon seemed to be pretty organized this year unlike some previous years. Things seemed to run smoothly.
The first day of Otakon 2010 kicked off with several openings, the most notable was the Gundam 0083 marathon one of the several video rooms present. This year Otakon was full of Gundam due to the 30 year anniversary of the franchise. In the Dealers room there were several vendors selling Gunpla at their booths. Unlike the Dealers room, the Artist Alley seem kind of small this year but those selling their crafts in that room had exceptional pieces that it seemed to make that room just as busy as the Dealer’s room, which was also host to the very first Gunpla Tournament at Otakon. At 7pm Otakon hosted the first ever How To Rock the Rave, which included Dance workshops for beginners in Raving, Para Para, and Breakdancing (which I do). The rave began shortly after the class, with first DJ, DJ Cutman, leading off with some 8-bit music mixes, followed by the typical Dub Step, Techno and other raving styles of music and the dancers were exceptionally good too!
The second day I did spend time in the Dealers Room and Artists Alley a little, but I turned my focus to the Game Room. This room was pretty much open everyday for about 14 hours (10am -Midnight). The room was filled from Fighting games to Music based ones. The Con was also host to several gaming tournaments on Friday and Saturday. But the thing that intrigued me the most was the panel to show a new mobile phone game produced by An Cafe Bassist Kanon called Pinky Distortion. Basically the player is control of a character that is part of a band as the manager and your job is to keep the band together and lead them to their first concert. They had a free trail version in the Apple iPhone App store but I was unable to demo it due to the fact that I do not own an iPhone. But they mention that if it becomes popular they will be porting to the Android O/S. I did get to see it on the iPad due to the crowd that was surrounding the iPad user. On top of everything on Saturday, the entire con was evacuated due to a fire alarm that was pulled.
On day three most people usually hit the Dealers and Artist Alley for deals on things that they are still trying to get rid off. Overall Otakon 2010 was a great experience and it seems to be getting better every year, I think that it was very fortunately that they displayed an indie game at the con this year an I hope we see more in the future.
2 Comments
No Lines Aside. Loved Con this year. Can’t wait for the next one it just keeps getting better.
Again, I missed out, second year in a row! So many people. My shame is felt throughout Baltimore.